This statement was written by the STJV union sections at Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Annecy

On Friday, January 27, we were calling for a strike at all companies of the Ubisoft group in France, together with Solidaires Informatique. This strike follows Yves Guillemot’s announcement that the fiscal year will be difficult and that we must show some effort in the coming year.

Once again, it is we, the workers, who are being asked to bear the burden of the management’s bad decisions, over which we have no influence. We are not fooled by the hypocrisy of this message: when the company is doing well, we are struggling to pick up the scraps, and when it is doing poorly, we are expected to bear the consequences.

This is why we demand :

• negotiations on salaries to obtain increases in line with inflation, in addition to annual increases
• a democratisation of the company’s organisation so that we can finally have a say in the decisions taken
• the possibility for production teams to do their job properly, in other words to have the power to decide the content of the games we produce

This historic strike rallied many people. About forty of us gathered on site in Paris, twenty in Montpellier and we were more than a hundred strikers throughout France. These gatherings allowed us to share our feelings about the company’s policies, but above all to build collective support: you are not alone, your colleagues are experiencing the same pressures as you. Together, we can stand up to management and make our voices heard.

Without us, games do not exist, it is normal that we can have our say.

This first strike experience was very rich and instructive, and we are proud to have been able to come together like this. As a result, our union section representatives were able to discuss with management our concerns about inflation and the infamous ‘natural attrition’.

This strike is a first step in the building of a power balance which already gives us more dialogue power via our workers’ representatives, but we must not stop there.

Management must know that we are present and take our opinion into account. This is why we stay alert to management’s communication and the next decisions that will be taken, and will not let go of our demands. This strike was a warning shot, the ball is now in the management’s court.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at or through your local union representatives.

Renewal of the call until 19 march 2023

The week of 6 March saw the start of extendable strikes, huge days of mobilisation on 7 and 11 March for pensions and on 8 March for the international day of struggle for the rights of women and gender minorities, and the multiplication of local actions.

Next Wednesday, the 15, the text of the pension reform will be studied by the Joint Parliamentary Committee, which includes representatives of the Assembly and the Senate. This is the last stage in the process of drafting the law, and its outcome may be the adoption of the pension reform. To mark the occasion, this day will be a major day of mobilisation and demonstrations.

In order to keep up the pressure and continue the mobilisation of video game workers, on 11 March the STJV decided to renew its call for strike action until Sunday 19 March 2023 included.

In particular, the STJV is calling on workers to strike and demonstrate on Wednesday 15 March throughout France, to mobilise workers in companies for these dates, and to take part in local actions. The STJV will be officially present at several demonstrations.

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The proposed pensions reform, as unpopular as ever, is unfortunately still on the table. Since 19 January, a social movement of almost unprecedented scale has been opposing it. And video game workers have been involved in large numbers.

We refuse to see the precariousness of people without jobs at the end of their careers and pensioners worsen, and we refuse to see poor people and workers die working before they reach retirement. Instead, we want to return to full retirement at 60 for everyone, funded by an increase in the lowest wages and gender pay equality.

After a series of isolated strike days and demonstrations, and while the text of the reform is being heatedly debated in the National Assembly, we have to face the facts: so far the government remains indifferent. All unions, even the most reformist ones, agree on the need to remain united and to strengthen the movement.

The upcoming 8 March is the international day of struggle for the rights of women and gender minorities, categories particularly affected by this reform. Already penalised under the current system by, among other things, lower wages, unrecognised strenuous work and incomplete careers, they will be even more so if this reform passes. The government’s own estimates show that the negative impacts of this reform will be almost doubled for women.

It is necessary to take into account the intersection between the effects of existing discriminations and those of the successive reforms aimed at destroying society, and therefore to broaden the movement: pensions are only one part of the problem.

The next step in the movement against the pensions reform will be a general strike, whose explicit aim is to block the whole French economy, starting on 7 March. It will be renewed for 8 March, and until the reform is withdrawn.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo is therefore calling for a strike in the video game industry from 7 to 12 March. We call on workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students from the video game industry to mobilise in companies, general assemblies and actions that will take place everywhere in France during this period.

Let’s join together wherever we can to discuss, learn, organise, build up local demands, and generally turn this general strike into a moment of struggle, joy and rest, until victory!

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a video game publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company, whatever their position or status and whatever their company’s area of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, derivative products, esports, online content creation, etc.), as well as to all teachers working in private schools in video game-related courses. As this is a national strike call, no action is necessary to go on strike: just don’t come to work.

After 3 massive days of mobilisation, the movement against the pensions reform continues, with a day of action coming up on Saturday 11 February. The government remains steadfast in its position and intends to mock the millions of strikers who have clearly expressed their opposition to this project.

Confronted with their lies, going so far as to claim that this reform could be beneficial for the poor and for women, our demands will not change. Rather than working more, we demand to work less: each week, by introducing the 4-day / 28-hour working week, and throughout our lives by restoring retirement at 60.

To defeat the pensions reform project and win better rights, we must continue to mobilise massively, all of us together, by continuing to strike. Not only to be able to demonstrate, but also and above all to reaffirm the place of workers in the economy: it is they who produce all economic value.

Each day of strike action that is followed en masse inflicts significant economic losses to employers and the upper classes, and erodes their support for the reform project supported by the government. These losses are the tool that will enable us to bring down those who want to impoverish and exploit us later and later in our lives.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo is therefore calling for a strike on Thursday 16 February. We call on workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students in video games to mobilise at companies, general assemblies and demonstrations throughout France. The STJV will be officially present at several demonstrations.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a video game publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company, whatever their position or status and whatever their company’s area of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, derivative products, esports, online content creation, etc.), as well as to all teachers working in private schools in video game-related courses. As this is a national strike call, no action is necessary to go on strike: just don’t come to work.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Renewal of the call until 11 February 2023

After the huge success of the day of action on 31 January, which was even bigger than the one on 19 January, already a record in our industry, the government has already repeated that it does not want to reconsider its reform project. Worse still, on 1 February, a cut in the duration of unemployment rights came into force. It will make many people poorer and make it more difficult to qualify for a full pension, adding to the horror of the reform project.

n order to maintain the pressure and to keep on mobilising video game workers, on February 1st the STJV decided to renew this call to strike until Saturday February 11th 2023 included.

In particular, the STJV is calling on workers to strike and demonstrate on Tuesday 7 February and Saturday 11 February across France, and to mobilise workers in companies for these dates. The STJV will be officially present at several demonstrations for these two dates.

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The beginning of the movement against the pension reform, on 19 January, has been impressive everywhere in France, including in the video game industry. On the STJV side alone, at the time of publication of this appeal, we already counted nearly 250 people marching with the STJV and on strike, in more than 30 different video game companies (figures incomplete, counting still in progress).

The government responded to thursday’s strikes with its usual contempt, expressing its will to continue while ignoring the massive unpopularity of its reform. And this despite the fact the president of the Conseil d’Orientation des Retraites confirmed what unions have been explaining for weeks: this reform is a political choice, in no way a necessity.

For the government does not intend to change its policy of reducing taxes on companies and increasing public funding to them without any compensation. And in order to do so, it prefers to make workers pay, especially those who started working early, the most precarious and those whose jobs are not recognised as strenuous.

Our demands do not change either: rather than working more, we demand to work less: each week, by introducing the 4-day / 28-hour working week, and throughout our lives by restoring retirement at 60.

To defeat this reform and win better rights, we need to build a massive and long-term movement, all of us together: by continuing to strike, to join demonstrations, to discuss with our colleagues, to join unions…

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo is therefore calling for a strike from 31 January to 3 February included. We call on workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students in video games to mobilise at companies, general assemblies and demonstrations throughout France. The STJV will be officially present at several demonstrations.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a video game publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company, whatever their position or status and whatever their company’s area of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, derivative products, esports, online content creation, etc.), as well as to all teachers working in private schools in video game-related courses. As this is a national strike call, no action is necessary to go on strike: just don’t come to work.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

This call has been written by members of the STJV working at Ubisoft companies in France, and is published in common with our comrades from Solidaires Informatique.

Video games workers are not consumables that one throws away through so-called « natural attrition », like they’re a foreign body.

While we can testify to the absurdity of our games’ production processes, and the way our colleagues and comrades are treated as a burden that the company seeks to offload, Ubisoft’s management keeps ignoring and questioning our work, while conveniently dismissing the mere possibility that failures and mishaps could be on their side.

We will not abandon our colleagues and comrades. And we will no longer let our employer denigrate our work while at the same time absolving itself of any responsibility when calling us to « give the best of ourselves » to fix its own mistakes.

The STJV is calling workers from all French entities of the Ubisoft group to strike on Friday, January 27th from 2PM to 6PM.

We demand immediately :

• Retention instead of attrition: we want to open salary negotiations in order to reach at least inflation-level collective raises, independantly from individual raises.
• For our CEO to stop burrying his head in the sand, like when his HR teams were stonewalling employee representatives on the harassment that was rampant within the company.
• Since « the ball is in our court », give us the rackets to play: let company employees choose our games’ content, and let us do our jobs.

If you have any questions about participating in the strike, please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our sections at Ubisoft Paris, Montpellier or Annecy.

During the movement against a planned pension reform in 2019/2020, the STJV joined the strike and ended up, after several weeks, using the inter-union strike fund held by the CGT Info’com (which we thank again warmly) to provide compensation to its members who needed it. For the 2023 movement, we plan to get organised earlier and create our own internal strike fund.

What is it for?

Strike hours and days are not paid. This restricts the number of people who can join strike movements and, for those who can afford it, it can quickly represent a significant financial cost.

To limit these problems and allow workers to mobilise widely, we appeal to solidarity and collective action by creating strike funds, which are distributed among strikers who need it the most.

How can I donate?

The STJV’s strike fund is constituted in part by money from an internal strike budget, fed by a small part of the members’ dues, but it remains mainly dependent on donations.

To contribute to the STJV’s strike fund, all you have to do is make a transfer to the STJV’s account dedicated to strike funds, the details of which are as follows:
IBAN : FR76 1027 8060 3100 0207 2930 259
BIC : CMCIFR2A

To simplify tracking and identification of donations to the strike fund, please remember to mention “caisse de grève” in the description of your transfer.

You can also give through the Caisse de solidarité here: https://caisse-solidarite.fr/c/stjv/

We will regularly make public updates on the amount of the strike fund, and its distribution.

How does it work?

At regular intervals throughout the strike movement, the STJV will survey strikers internally and in companies where it has union sections, in order to assess compensation needs, and collect the information necessary to make these compensations.

After each survey, the declared strikers are invited to decide collectively and democratically on the distribution of the available funds, taking into account the information at their disposal, everyone’s own needs and the future of the movement.

What do we do with the remaining funds, if there are any at the end?

The same way, if there is a surplus in the strike fund, members of the STJV decide collectively what to do with it: transfer all or part of it to other strike funds, to the STJV internal strike budget for future movements, to charities, etc.

In an effort to ensure transparency, these decisions will be made public.

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Redistribution for the 19 to 26 January period

On 8 February, the STJV strikes fund had 6626 €. For the 19 to 26 January strike, an assembly of striking workers redistributed 1280 € to people who requested compensation. The 5346 € left will be kept in the fund for the future developments of the movement.

Striking workers will meet again in early March to allocate the strike fund for the 31 January to 28 February period.

Redistribution for the 31 January to 16 February period

On 28 February, the STJV strikes fund had 5946 €. For the 31 January to 16 February strike, an assembly of striking workers redistributed 5800 € to people who requested compensation. The 146 € left will be kept in the fund for the future developments of the movement.

Striking workers will meet again in late March to allocate the strike fund for the 1st to 31st March period.

Redistribution for the 7 to 31 March period

On 7 Apris, the STJV strikes fund had 13 501 €. For the 7 to 31 March strike, an assembly of striking workers redistributed 14 250 € to people who requested compensation. The missing 749 € will be donated by the union.

Striking workers will meet again in early May to allocate the strike fund for the 1st to 30 April period.

On 10 January 2023, the government revealed its plan to raise the legal retirement age to 64, with an accelerated increase in the minimum working period.

This reform would hit all workers hard, especially those who started working early, the most precarious, whose life expectancy is lower than the rest of the population, and those whose jobs are not recognised as strenuous. It would worsen the precariousness of those who are no longer employed before their retirement, and would reinforce gender inequalities.

The current pension system is not at risk financially. Nothing justifies such a brutal reform.

Its actual motive is the government’s stubborn refusal to tax companies, and on the contrary to maintain its policy of reducing these taxes and handing out public money with nothing in return: subsidies to companies represent the largest item of state expenditure, one third of the French budget.

Rather than working more, we demand to work less: each week, by introducing the 4-day / 28-hour working week, and throughout our lives by restoring retirement at 60.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo is joining the labour movement by calling for a strike from 19 to 26 January 2023. We call workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students in video games to mobilise in their companies, at general assemblies and in the demonstrations that will take place across France. The STJV will be officially present in several of these demonstrations.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company for video games, whatever their position or status and whatever their company’s area of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, spin-off products, esport, online content creation, etc.), as well as to all teachers working in private schools on video game-related courses.

For all these people, and since this is a national call to strike, no action is necessary to go on strike: you just have to not come to work on the day you want to strike.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

We were on strike on September 29:

• Against the governmental policy of welfare cuts and general impoverishment of the population, and in particular making the Active Solidarity Income (RSA) dependent on the completion of working hours, the counter-reform project of pensions, and the serious endangerment of social benefits like unemployment insurance.
• To force companies to put in place long-term measures against the impoverishment of workers, such as automatic wage increases above inflation and the transition of precarious workers to permanent contracts.
• For a redistribution of the wealth accumulated by the upper classes, especially since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, going against the policies of tax cuts and credits granted to companies, and especially in the video game industry, an industry that has seen a jump in sales.
• For the implementation of our proposals to make work fairer and more democratic, both in our industry and in all others, such as the reduction of working time to 4 days, a basic measure to fight against unemployment and work-related illnesses.

FOR THE TRANSITION TO A 4-DAY/28-HOUR WORKING WEEK

FOR AN AUTOMATIC WAGE INCREASE ABOVE INFLATION

These demands are still valid and worth fighting for. But, now that a movement is building up in various industries across France to effectively demand a sharing of the wealth, the state is responding harshly by going so far as to challenge the (constitutional!) right to strike by illegally requisitioning workers.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) is joining the unions’ mobilisation by calling for a strike on October 18, 2022, and calls on workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students of the video game industry to mobilise in their companies, in general assemblies and in the demonstrations that will take place throughout France. The STJV will be officially present in several demonstrations in France.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a company that publishes, distributes, provides services and/or creates video games or video game equipment, whatever their position or status and whatever the type of production of their company (console, PC, mobile, serious games, VR/AR experiences, game engines, marketing services, game consoles, streaming, etc. ), as well as all the teachers working in private schools in courses related to video game production. For all these people, and since this is a national call to strike, no action is necessary to go on strike: you just have to not come to work on the day you want to strike.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

After last spring’s elections, new reforms further undermining social rights were announced. Meanwhile, inflation continues to soar, forests continue to burn, temperatures continue to rise. At a time when we fear upcoming food shortages, the government’s only aim is to continue to increase inequalities.

Among other things, it proposes :

• the generalisation of forced labour by making the Revenu de Solidarité Active (RSA) subject to the completion of work hours.
• the impoverishment of retirees with the revival of the pensions reform. If it does not raise the retirement age to 65 anymore, this is only a PR move, as other measures will drag pensions down no matter what.
• threatening social benefits such as unemployment insurance.

Despite making successive promises to fight against homelessness, then against sexism and now for the environment, the French government is satisfied with public communication and refuses, since it is its policy, to take concrete action.

The years ahead appear to be a continuation of previous policies, in favour of the richest, against the poor and against all marginalised people.

If the French economy has not collapsed despite the crisis we have been going through since 2020, it is only, as everywhere in the world, thanks to the dedication and efforts of millions of workers. These people, who are truly essential in our society, are still poorly treated and poorly paid, even before their rights are slashed any further. If large French companies were able to generate 44 billion euros in dividends alone in the 2nd quarter of 2022, it is only because of the value created by workers. This reality also applies to the video game industry.

In addition to increasing wages above inflation and introducing the 4-day week, both minimum measures to minimise the mess and actually reduce unemployment, we demand the implementation of our proposals to make work fairer, both in our industry and in all others.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) is joining the labour movement by calling for strike actions on September 29, 2022, and calls on video game workers, unemployed people, retirees and students to organise themselves in their companies, in general assemblies and in the demonstrations that will take place throughout France. The STJV will be officially present in several demonstrations across France.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a company that publishes, distributes, provides services and/or creates video games or video game equipment, whatever their position or status and whatever the type of production of their company (console, PC, mobile, serious games, VR/AR experiences, game engines, marketing services, game consoles, streaming, etc. ), as well as all the teachers working in private schools in courses related to video game production. For all these people, and since this is a national call to strike, no action is necessary to go on strike: you just have to not come to work on the day you want to strike.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Each year, June is Pride Month, a time of celebration, struggle and remembrance for LGBT+ people. It is made necessary to oppose the stigma, discrimination and violence we face, to fight for our freedom and our living conditions.

Although it seems that the rights of LGBT+ people are progressing over the years, it is important to remember that these improvements are still, for the time being, merely hiding a wealth of existing discrimination. They are not evenly distributed, politically, economically and socially: laws and personal circumstances can vary enormously, and the upper classes have greater access to healthcare and safe environments. Violence against us is real, and it can kill. Every year members of our diverse communities die, either assassinated outright, driven to suicide, or left to die in poverty.

These oppressions do not only exist at the level of interpersonal interactions: they are systemic. And work, which dominates our lives, is a major factor in these oppressions. Companies, and the employers who run them, are directly responsible. Through malice, neglect or lack of interest, corporate executives turn a blind eye to the harassment we face, block our gender transitions and the use of our gender identity, allow the wage gap to widen and our precarity to grow…

By creating obstacles and fighting against employee representatives and trade unions, company administrations are directly responsible for the deterioration of our working and living conditions. They contribute to ruining our lives, exploit us for our labour power, and use us for their marketing.

Actual LGBT+ struggles, our struggles, are not about pandering to LGBT-phobic people to get them to ‹ tolerate › us. They seek to enable us to live normal, dignified and materially secure lives. They are intrinsically linked to the struggles of other marginalised groups and trade unions. This year, like all others, we will fight and organise collectively to support our comrades and hasten the fall of patriarchy and capitalism.

In the video game industry

Many of us are still speaking out against the discrimination we face in video game companies. Whether in big companies like Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, Quantic Dream, where high-profile cases have made serious problems visible, or in smaller companies that sometimes manage to escape media attention but are no less discriminating. And let’s not forget about schools which, long before we enter the workplace, are already hurting us.

All year long, but especially during the month of June, companies boast about their so-called inclusiveness: rainbow merch like at Ubisoft, big internal conferences to introduce half-measures to their employees, external communication about their LGBT+ employees, non-binding and therefore useless « diversity and inclusion » charters…

We are used as a banner, convenient to wave when useful for their recruitment or instrumentalized for their marketing campaigns, while suffering the hidden face of this « inclusiveness ». In reality, LGBT+ people are discriminated against at all levels: hired less easily, over-represented in the most precarious contracts, generally paid less than their colleagues, disproportionately fired.

As well as suffering LGBT-phobia on a daily basis in the workplace, we are also reduced to watching our stories exploited in the games we work on without being consulted or given the opportunity to speak out about them. At best, our opinions are ignored by a hierarchy that thinks it knows us better than we do. LGBT+ characters and relationships written by cisgender and heterosexual men, which don’t represent us but pander to their fantasies and fetishise us, become selling points for games and companies, but serve as reminders of the oppressions we LGBT+ workers face.

Our demands

To improve the working and living conditions of LGBT+ people, and those of all workers, we demand, among other things:

• an end to the use of fixed-term contracts, to fight against the precariousness affecting LGBT+ people;
• the mandatory introduction of publicly available salary grids in companies, to end wage discrimination that disproportionately affects minorities;
• full coverage of all medical care by company health insurance schemes, including transitioning procedures for transgender people;
• the use of preferred names and surnames at work upon request, without asking questions or requiring justifications;
• the introduction of equal and compulsory parental leave, including in case of adoption, for all couples;
• the inclusion of staff representatives and trade unions in the processes for reporting and managing discrimination and violence in the workplace, so that the voices of those affected can be heard;
• the inclusion of all workers in decision-making and creative processes, and their total transparency, so that each person concerned can be consulted and act on the company’s choices.

We know from experience that such changes will not be implemented willingly by our bosses simply by asking for it: we must organise together, as we do at the STJV, in order to build the necessary power to force them through.